FCC Approves AT&T’s Buy of WCS Licenses, Finds No Evidence of Competitive Harm
The FCC determined that AT&T’s buy of wireless communications service licenses from Comcast, Horizon Wi-Com, NextWave and San Diego Gas & Electric won’t result in competitive harm and will mean finally seeing the spectrum in play for wireless broadband. Commissioners wrapped up voting on the order Tuesday, shortly before it was released that night. The ruling wraps together four separate transactions and had been expected (CD Dec 19 p12).
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The order approved AT&T’s buy of 10-25 MHz of A, B, and C block WCS spectrum from Comcast in 149 cellular market areas, 10 MHz of A block WCS spectrum from Horizon Wi-Com in 132 CMAs, 5-30 MHz of A, B, C, and D block WCS spectrum from NextWave in 476 CMAs and 10 MHz of C and D block WCS spectrum in San Diego from SDG&E. The FCC approved AT&T’s buy of 10-30 MHz of AWS-1 spectrum in 29 CMAs also from NextWave.
"Based on our review of the competitive effects of AT&T’s post-transaction spectrum holdings on a local and national level, we find that these transactions are not likely to result in competitive or other public interest harms,” the order stated (http://xrl.us/bn67f9). “We also anticipate that these transactions are likely to result in certain public interest benefits by facilitating the transition of long-underutilized WCS spectrum towards mobile broadband use, thereby supporting our goal of expanding mobile broadband deployment throughout the country.” The order found “on balance, these transactions are in the public interest."
Based on AT&T spectrum holdings and the commission’s spectrum screen, the FCC looked more closely at 10 markets covering a combined population of 1.3 million. “We find that AT&T is not likely to have the ability to increase the price of or reduce the quality of its service offerings in any of these local markets,” the order said: The deals “do not result in the acquisition of wireless business units and customers or change the number of firms in any of the markets.” The FCC found that in three of the markets the four national carriers compete. “In these three CMAs, the three nationwide providers other than AT&T each has between 40 megahertz and 114 megahertz of spectrum,” the order said. “In the other seven triggered CMAs, there are at least two other nationwide providers with market presence and capacity.” The WCS band is one of the bands targeted for wireless broadband in the FCC’s March 2010 National Broadband Plan.
"The long era of dispute and uncertainty surrounding the WCS spectrum band is finally over,” AT&T Vice President Joan Marsh said in a statement. “Repositioning the WCS band for LTE deployment is a significant accomplishment which will spur aggressive investment by AT&T and create good paying jobs across the wireless and technology eco-systems.” Marsh said customers will benefit from the order “for years to come as we realize the spectrum’s full potential to enhance our wireless broadband offerings.”